BIRDS

Birds are feathered animals. All birds have wings, although some of them cannot fly. The other main feature is the beak. This is made of horny layers built up around the jaw bones. It takes the place of teeth (no modern birds have teeth), and the bird also uses its

beak like other animals use their front legs – for finding food and for making homes.

Birds live in all parts of the world, hot and cold. They inhabit all situations, from mountains and deserts, through fields and woodlands, to marshes, lakes, and the open sea. There are about 8,600 different kinds of birds in the world and they are divided into many different groups. The largest group has several names – perching birds, passerines, or song birds.

 There are about 5,000 different kinds in this group – more than all the other groups put together. All the true singing birds belong here, the thrushes, robins, warblers, canaries, and so on. Most of them live in trees and their toes are suited to gripping the branches – hence the name of perching birds. The birds in this group are generally small, the Australian lyrebirds and the ravens being the largest.

The rest of the birds are arranged in relatively small groups: the owls, the hawks, the game birds, the parrots, and so on. The large flightless birds, such as the ostriches and emus, are placed in their own groups and separated from all other birds. But not all flightless birds belong with the ostriches and their kind. Penguins are a separate group, while the dodo was a flightless member of the pigeon group. They are flightless members in many other birds’ families. They are flightless because they have adopted ground-living habits and have gradually lost the use of their wings.

Scientists believe that birds have descended from reptiles and that their fathers have developed from scales there is strong evidence for this belief in the scales that still remain on birds legs. The oldest birds fossil so far discovered are at least 150 million years old, and show many connections with reptiles. In spite of their reptile ancestors, birds are warm-blooded, like human beings. They keep their bodies at a fixed high temperature whether the air is hot or cold. The feathers help to keep them warm in cold weather.

The skeleton of a bird is well built for flight. The bones are small and thin, and therefore light, although they are strong. The long bones are hollow and are often given extra strength by crisscrossed ‘struts’ inside. More than half of a birds weight is muscle, and the largest muscle are those that move the wings. These are very powerful muscles and must have good anchorage. This anchorage is provided by the breast-bone, which has a large, thin keel projecting from the underside, just like the keel of a Yatch. The muscles are attached to this keel. Flightless birds have only a small keel, and some of them have no keel at all. Birds wings are specially constructed front legs, and they bear the long sturdy feathers that are necessary for flight.

Most birds are very active animals, and they use up a lot of energy. In order to get this energy, they have to spend a great deal of time eating. Many birds especially the seed-eaters have a stretchable bad near the beginning of their food canal. This bag is called the crop, and quite a lot of swallowed food can be stored there. This is particularly useful for birds such as pheasants and pigeons that have many enemies and have to get as much food as they can when their enemies are not around. The food collected in the crop can be digested later.

As well as plenty of food, birds need a good oxygen supply to meet their energy needs. Their lungs are specially built. When human beings breathe in and out, a lot of stale air remains in their lungs, and so they do not have a lung full of fresh air. Birds, however, have air sacs beyond the lungs. When they breadth in, the air rushes through the lungs and into the air sacs, when the birds breadth out again, the air rushes back through the lungs. There is always fresh air in the lungs, and they can get plenty of oxygen from it. The sacs also help to buoy the bird up in the air.

A good pair of lungs is not much use without a good blood system to carry the oxygen round the body. Birds also have a good blood system, with a four chambered heart giving an efficient circulation similar to that of human beings.

All birds reproduce by laying eggs, and they usually lay their eggs in spring or early summer. Egg-laying time is called the breeding season. Even in warm climates birds generally have a definite breeding season. The birds start by choosing their mates. Male birds often have bright colors and frequently use call songs that attract mates and may also warn other mates away from the chosen territory. There is a good deal of courtship and display by one or both birds, and this eventually leads to nest building and mating. Nests are mainly places to lay eggs and rear young they are not permanent homes. Some birds do not even bother to make a proper nest. They use a hollow in the ground or a rocky ledge.

Some birds’ lay as many as 20 eggs, but half a dozen is more usual. Many birds of prey lay one or two eggs. After being laid, the eggs have to be incubated (kept warm). The birds do this by sitting on their eggs. Sometimes only one parent will sit on the eggs, sometimes both parents take it in turns. The sitting bird is fed by its partner. The eggs generally hatch into two or three weeks, although some kinds of birds need longer.

Many ground-nesting and water-nesting birds already have feathers when they hatch. They can leave the nest right away, although they still have to be looked after by their mother. Ducks and chickens are examples. Tree-living birds, however, are generally very poor developed when the hatch, completely naked and blind, and quite unable to move about. Young chicks are always very hungry, and their parents bring them a continuous supply of food. Nestling birds grow and develop very rapidly as a result of their endless feeding, and are ready for their first flying lesson after a few weeks.

Although young birds have the ability to fly right from the start, they have to learn to use their wings, and they often fall in the process. The mother encourages her off springs to fly by flying a short distance herself and then calling the young ones. When once the young have mastered the act, the family breaks up and leaves the nest. Some birds pair for life and may return year after year to the same nest. More often, a new nest is made each year.

The length of a bird’s life varies. Ravens have been kept for 70 years, and parrots more than 60, but they probably have much shorter live in the wild.

During the course of their evolution (development) most groups of birds have become accustomed to their own special nesting habits and particular methods of feeding. It is these features that determine the places in which birds make their homes.

Gulls, auks, and certain other groups have adopted a diet of salt water fish, accordingly, they live around the coast, nesting on rocky cliffs and flying out to sea to catch food.

Fresh water, both running and still, has a large bird population – ducks, moorhens, swans, herons, dippers, and many more – all finding a suitable diet in or around the water. Several groups have taken to living on meadows and other stretches of open country.

The many kinds of woodland birds – woodpeckers, parrots, night jars, toucans, and so on – each has its own particular way of life, and its own food preferences.

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